


All the Wrong Turns Turned Right

by slightlytookish



Category: Merlin (BBC)
Genre: F/F, Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-01-01
Updated: 2011-01-01
Packaged: 2017-10-14 07:12:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,020
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/146742
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/slightlytookish/pseuds/slightlytookish
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Elena visits her old friend she finds Vivian drastically changed and is determined to set things right.</p>
            </blockquote>





	All the Wrong Turns Turned Right

**Author's Note:**

> Warning: Spoilers for Episode 3x06

"Did you really visit Camelot?" Vivian asked again. She grabbed Elena's hand and squeezed it, looking anxious. "Did you see my love? Did you see Arthur?"

Elena smiled awkwardly. Since Vivian had found out about her almost-marriage she'd talked of nothing else; this was at least the fifth time that she had asked about Arthur since noon. "I did see him. I told you, we were engaged for a little while."

Vivian's eyes narrowed suspiciously. "But are you absolutely certain you didn't marry him?"

"Quite certain!" Elena still felt a rush of relief at the memory. "He didn't love me, and I didn't love him. It all worked out for the best, really."

Vivian sighed heavily. "Good. I don't think I ever would have forgiven you if you'd married him. I would have hated you forever if you'd taken my love away from me." She sighed again, her shoulders drooping miserably, and looked out of the window with such fierce longing that it seemed as if she thought she could make Arthur suddenly appear just by the strength of her gaze.

Elena patted Vivian's hand reassuringly. Seeing her old friend like this made her heart ache. There was a time when Elena used to think that she wanted to be just like Vivian. She was everything that Elena was not – she was poised, she was elegant, and her clothes were never stained with grass or mud. Maybe she was a little mean sometimes, and she was certainly very bossy and demanding, but she could also be very charming when she wanted to be and she had always treated Elena kindly (except when she was laughing at her for tripping over her skirts). Elena had always supposed that Vivian was the perfect princess, the sort of princess that she had wished she could be to make her father proud.

But Vivian was different now. She was quiet, and sad, and something about her seemed off-balance, like Elena had been all her life before she had gone to Camelot and... changed so unexpectedly (her father had said that she was just a late bloomer, and though Elena trusted his judgement she sometimes wondered if there had been something funny in that tonic Gaius had given her).

None of this was important, though, not when Vivian looked so wretched. "I hate seeing you so unhappy," she said. "What can I do to help?"

"There's nothing you can do," Vivian said. "Only Arthur can help me. I need to be with him but Father said I'm never to go to Camelot again and Arthur never writes or visits and oh, Elena, I'm beginning to think he doesn't love me after all." Her lower lip wobbled dangerously, her eyes filled with tears, and she began to cry.

Elena frowned and held out her arms. "Come here," she said, and Vivian flung herself at her, landing half in her lap and pressing her face tight against Elena's neck, sobbing so hard that she trembled all over. Elena rubbed her back and smoothed her hair and made soft sympathetic noises, the way Grunhilda used to do before she disappeared, and all the while she wished she had hit Arthur harder that day in the woods for hurting Vivian like this.

After a while Vivian quieted and drooped against her. "You smell like horse," she said, but even that didn't sound like one of Vivian's usual complaints, especially when she didn't lift her face away from Elena's shoulder in disgust like she normally would.

"I'm sorry." Elena grinned and ducked her head to meet Vivian's eyes. "A horse race will make you feel better! That always cheers me up when I'm feeling sad or worried. Let's go down to the stables and-"

But Vivian's eyes were filling with tears again. "Only my love could make me feel better," she said, and Elena had such a sudden desire to _be_ that person, to be the one that put a smile on her friend's face, that she leaned down and pressed her lips against Vivian's.

For a moment Vivian didn't respond and Elena was terrified that she would push her away. But then she eagerly began kissing back, and got one hand tangled in Elena's hair while the other crept up Elena's skirt, and Elena pressed closer and closer until she finally overbalanced and knocked them both over the edge of the bed and onto the floor.

They lay there side by side, breathless and unmoving, until Vivian finally sat up, wrinkling her nose in distaste like she used to do.

"You still smell like horse," she said, "but I know how to fix that." She tugged at the front of Elena's dress and managed to bare one of her shoulders before Elena's wits finally retuned and she caught Vivian's hand in her own.

"What about Arthur?" she said, not really wanting to stop Vivian but knowing that she couldn't let this go on without being certain.

Vivian stuck out her tongue, looking utterly repulsed. "Arthur! What was I thinking? I must have been mad! I don't want to talk about him ever again." She stood and brushed off her gown before perching demurely on the edge of the bed once more. There was no trace of her earlier sadness in her currently rumpled demeanour; her anxious expression had vanished and her gaze was clear and sharp in the way Elena remembered it had been before Vivian had ever gone to Camelot and decided that she was in love with Arthur. Elena wouldn't have believed that a person could change so quickly if she hadn't experienced something like it herself.

"Well?" Vivian said, jarring Elena out of her sudden thoughtfulness. "Why are you still sitting on the floor? Hurry up, Elena. I want to kiss you again." She held out a hand and beckoned impatiently.

Elena laughed as she took Vivian's hand and tumbled onto the bed beside her. Vivian rolled her eyes and shook her head like she always did whenever she despaired of Elena's clumsiness, but she was laughing too when she pulled Elena down for another kiss.


End file.
